He will be sorely missed, one of a few men of high integrity in the audio realm.
steve
While Marty will be missed I have to disagree with you that he was "one of a few men of high integrity in the audio realm."
I have been involved in this hobby for over thirty years and it has been my great pleasure to deal with many people whom I would definitely consider to be of high integrity. The nature of the audio press end of the business is such that it is totally dependent on advertising dollars and as a result there are times where financial considerations tend to take precedent over what I might call total journalistic freedom. And it is not just the audio press. I have a college friend who has spent his career in the newspaper business. He tells me that when he started there in the 80s the newspaper business was a noble profession and bringing the truth to the public was their first and foremost goal. But as the newspapers began getting bought up by big corporate conglomerates whose only concern was how next quarters financials were going to look, the news just became another way to generate revenue for the corporation and profits started to become more and more important than the journalism itself.
Sorry for rambling on, but the point I am trying to get to is that most of the people I have dealt with on the manufacturing side of this business are hard working honest people who do their best to try to put out the best product possible withing the market segment they are trying to address. I would just hate to see them lumped in with the audio press when talking about the integrity of the people in the the business. People like you and Dave and Pete are out there trying to do what you can to help us enjoy our music more. I don't and certainly don't think anybody else should look at guys like you in same light that we do the audio press. (and of course I and talking about the audio press as an industry in general, there are certainly some people involved in the press (like Marty) who are stand up guys.)
Since Marty is involved in the press, I was referring mainly to them T, but I can name some big names if you wish. I also know a few manufacturers as well. Being a manufacturer might allow me to see things behind the scenes, by personal experience, so how would the public know?
I also know of a few in forums (not AN) who have expressed to me they don't care about shilling, one just recently. These are not hearsay, but direct, personal contacts.
I was directly blackballed by some industry and virus attacked simply because I defended my amps using indirectly heated tubes in my SET amps some 20 years ago. I had never heard of the forum before that.
I then received at many as 36 virus attacks in One Day, not over weeks, for simply showing that the plate curves in triode mode were the same as "true triodes".
I soon learned I better have an external hard drive backup since I had to restore my computer dozens, if not more times over the months. I simply stopped posting on that forum.
I had one preamplifier destroyed with a hammer because I would not sell my preamplifier to a well known reviewer for $300.00. Of course no one hear about these unless I mentioned it.
I also had one reviewer from a large forum go after me for ~2 years while he was pushing brand "A".
I did not personally know either the reviewer nor the company. Turned out he reviewed "A" and the company's owner had been caught pay for review. By the way, UPS mistakenly shipped back the preamplifier to the shilling reviewer. I did finally receive a check for $300.00 from the famous review magazine.
You either do the bribes or no review.
With the varied so called "scientific" and otherwise postings, how does one know what is true and what is not, who is honest and who is not?
steve
